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Online advertised vacancies increased 170,800 to 4,651,500 in July, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Data Series,released today. The June Supply/Demand rate stands at 1.46 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 2.1 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was approximately 6.6 million in June.

NOTE: Recently, the HWOL Data Series has experienced a declining trend in the number of online job ads that may not reflect broader trends in the U.S. labor market. Based on changes in how job postings appear online, The Conference Board is reviewing its HWOL methodology to ensure accuracy and alignment with market trends.

REGIONAL AND STATE HIGHLIGHTS

Among the 20 largest States, 19 increased and 1 decreased

Among the 50 States, 42 increased 7 declined, and 1 was constant

July Changes for States

In July, online labor demand grew in 42 States, declined in 7 States, and 1 was constant. All four regions experienced increases.

The Northeast increased 25,600 in July (Table A). Pennsylvania increased 18,400 to 206,400. New Jersey increased 10,100 to 147,000. Massachusetts increased 4,200 to 144,000. New York decreased 1,800 to 273,200. In the smaller States, Connecticut decreased 800 to 61,600. New Hampshire increased 500 to 22,100 and Maine decreased 200 to 17,000. Rhode Island increased 800 to 15,800 and Vermont increased 700 to 11,700 (Table 3).

The West increased 10,200 in July. California increased 15,300 to 530,100 and Colorado increased 3,100 to 116,000. Washington increased 1,700 to 130,500. Arizona increased 3,200 to 92,400. Among the smaller States in theWest, Oregon decreased 800 to 68,400. Utah increased 1,100 to 48,000. Nevada increased 1,000 to 41,500. Idaho increased 100 to 21,800 and New Mexico decreased 200 to 24,400. Montana fell 600 to 17,400 and Hawaii decreased 600 to 19,900.

The Midwest experienced an increase of 60,200 in July. Illinois increased 10,500 to 189,100. Michigan increased 9,200 to 136,200. Missouri increased 3,700 to 87,400 and Ohio increased 9,100 to 157,500. Minnesota increased 2,900 to 130,800 and Wisconsin increased 6,100 to 102,500. Among the smaller States in the region, Indiana increased 7,800 to 83,700 and Iowa increased 3,000 to 57,100. Nebraska increased 800 to 29,200 and South Dakota increased 700 to 13,800. Kansas increased 2,500 to 37,600.

The South increased 71,000 in July. Among the larger States in the region, Texas increased 8,900 to 317,200. Florida increased 6,600 to 238,900. North Carolina increased 7,100 to 134,600. Georgia increased 9,700 to 146,900. Virginia increased 9,400 to 147,500. Maryland increased 7,200 to 94,100. Among the smaller States, Tennessee increased 8,000 to 82,900 and South Carolina increased 5,500 to 60,100. Alabama increased 2,500 to 51,500. Kentucky increased 2,200 to 46,400 and Oklahoma increased 2,000 to 39,900. Louisiana increased 1,900 to 40,800 and Delaware increased 800 to 17,300.

Supply/Demand Rates: Help Wanted OnLine calculates Supply/Demand rates for the 50 States (Table 4). The data are for June 2018, the latest month for which State unemployment figures are available. There were 9 States in which the number of advertised vacancies exceeded the number of unemployed: Hawaii (0.69), North Dakota (0.66), Colorado (0.74), Minnesota (0.74), Iowa (0.83), Vermont (0.88), New Hampshire (0.94), Wisconsin (0.94), and Massachusetts (0.95). The States with the highest Supply/Demand rates were Louisiana (2.61), Mississippi (2.39), and West Virginia (2.30), which had more than two unemployed workers for every job opening.

Please note that the Supply/Demand rate only provides a measure of relative tightness of the individual State labor markets and does not suggest that the occupations of the unemployed directly align with the occupations of the advertised vacancies.

In July, labor demand rose in 43 metro areas, declined in 8, and 1 was constant. The MSAs with the largest changes in each of the regions were: Chicago (8,600) and Detroit (4,900) in the Midwest; Los Angeles (8,300) and Phoenix (3,400) in the West; Washington DC (6,800) and Atlanta (6,400) in the South; and Philadelphia (7,800) and New York (5,800) in the Northeast (See Table B and Table 5).

The West increased 10,200 in July. Los Angeles increased 8,300 to 161,000. Seattle-Tacoma added 2,000 to 86,200 and Phoenix increased 3,400 to 66,700. San Francisco increased 200 to 113,100. Denver increased 2,200 to 68,900 and San Jose fell 200 to 58,000. Riverside increased 1,900 to 31,600. Portland fell 200 to 41,900. Sacramento decreased 500 at 25,300 and Salt Lake City was constant at 25,300. Honolulu fell 600 to 13,000 and Las Vegas grew 1,100 to 26,300.

The Midwest experienced an increase of 60,200 in July. Chicago increased 8,600 to 149,500 and Detroit increased 4,900 to 65,000. Minneapolis-St. Paul increased 3,500 to 92,600 and St. Louis grew 1,700 to 46,600. Indianapolis increased 2,800 to 31,200. Columbus increased 2,100 to 33,800 and Cincinnati increased 2,900 to 34,700. Kansas City increased 3,000 to 38,800 and Cleveland increased 2,000 to 29,700. Milwaukee increased 2,400 to 31,300.

The number of postings does not, however, tell the entire story. A crucial factor is how many unemployed people are seeking jobs and how much competition there is for the jobs that are available. The Conference Board HWOL’s Supply/Demand rate relates the number of unemployed workers to the number of advertised vacancies. Based on June’s data (the latest available unemployment data for metro areas), 12 major metro areas saw more job openings than unemployed workers: San Jose (S/D rate of 0.48), Denver (0.57), Minneapolis-St. Paul (0.58), San Francisco (0.63), Honolulu (0.69), Salt Lake City (0.70), Nashville (0.77), Washington, DC (0.79), Boston (0.81), Milwaukee (0.83), Austin (0.90), and Seattle-Tacoma (0.94) (Table 6). Other favorable markets for job-seekers included Richmond (1.04), Pittsburgh (1.08), and Hartford (1.08).

In contrast, unemployed workers face great competition for each advertised position in Riverside (over 2 unemployed for every opening) as well as Houston (2 unemployed for every opening). In 50 of the 52 metro areas, however, there are now fewer than 2 unemployed per advertised opening. (See Table 6 for complete metro area Supply/Demand rates.)

OCCUPATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

In July, all of the largest ten online occupational categories posted increases (See pdf Table C)

Occupational Changes for the Month of July

In July, all of the largest ten online occupational categories posted increases.

Food preparation and service increased 16,300 to 220,900. The supply/demand rate lies at 2.95 i.e. over 2 unemployed job-seekers for every advertised available opening.

PROGRAM NOTES

Special Note

Recently, the HWOL Data Series has experienced a declining trend in the number of online job ads that may not reflect broader trends in the U.S. labor market. Based on changes in how job postings appear online, The Conference Board is reviewing its HWOL methodology to ensure accuracy and alignment with market trends.

HWOL available on Haver Analytics

Over 3,000 of the key HWOL press release time series are exclusively available on Haver Analytics. The available time series include the geographic and occupational series for levels and rates for both Total Ads and New Ads. In addition to the seasonally adjusted series, many of the unadjusted series are also available. The geographic detail includes: U.S., 9 Regions, 50 States, 52 MSAs (largest metro areas). The occupational detail includes: U.S. (2-digit SOC), States (1-digit SOC) and MSAs (1-digit SOC).

The Conference BoardHelp Wanted OnLine®Data Series (HWOL) measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month for over 16,000 Internet job boards, corporate boards and smaller job sites that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

Like The Conference Board’s long-running Help Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which was published for over 55 years and discontinued in July 2008), the HWOL series measures help wanted advertising, i.e. labor demand. The HWOL data series began in May 2005. With the September 2008 release, HWOL began providing seasonally adjusted data for the U.S., the nine Census regions and the 50 States. Seasonally adjusted data for occupations were provided beginning with the May 2009 release, and seasonally adjusted data for the 52 largest metropolitan areas began with the February 2012 release.

People using this data are urged to review the information on the database and methodology available on The Conference Board website and contact us with questions and comments. Background information and technical notes and discussion of revisions to the series are available at: http://www.conference-board.org/data/helpwantedonline.cfm.

Additional information on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data used in this release can be found on the BLS website, www.bls.gov.

The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membershipand research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world’s leading organizationswith the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States.

WANTED Analytics, a CEB Company

WANTED is a leading supplier of real-time business intelligence solutions for the talent marketplace. Using technology to gather data from corporate career sites and online job boards, WANTED builds products to help our users make better human capital decisions faster. Users of our products include corporate human resources departments, market analysts and employment services firms as well as the federal, state and local labor market analysts that use HWOL. For more information, please visit: www.wantedanalytics.com.

HAVER ANALYTICS®

Haver Analytics is the premier provider of time series data for the Global Strategy and Research community. Haver Analytics was founded in 1978 as a consulting firm and today provides the highest quality data and software for industry professionals. Haver provides products and services to clients in financial services, government, academia and various industry groups from consulting to manufacturing. From more information please see: http://www.haver.com/contact.html.